Prophets II Catholic Bible study Lesson 6

Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks
Through His Servants the Prophets

Volume II: Restoration & Redemption

Lesson 6 Obadiah’s Oracles Against Edom
the Book of Obadiah 1:1–21

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for Thus Says the LORD—Volume II
cross references in Thus Says the LORD—Volume II
next lesson: Deutero-Isaiah Proclaims the End of the Exile

This online supplemental material coordinates with the lesson on pages 45–49 of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
—the Book of Isaiah 55:10–11 (RSVCE)**

welcome to Volume II of our in-depth study of the biblical prophets
We invite you to check out the sample first lesson and video from Volume II of this Turning to God’s Word two-part Catholic Bible study. Our online pages link to the free related lesson videos, a glossary, and cross references in the biblical text, and include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption contains 23 lessons and has been granted an imprimatur. It may be purchased from our website shop. The companion 28-lesson Volume I: A Kingdom Divided also is available for purchase. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” button on any study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Book of Ezekiel 36:22–28; the Book of Ezekiel 37:1–14; the Book of Ezekiel 38:1–9; the Book of Ezekiel 39:21–27; the Book of Ezekiel 40:1–5; the Book of Ezekiel 42:15; the Book of Ezekiel 42:20; the Book of Ezekiel 43:1–8; the Book of Ezekiel 44:1–16; the Book of Ezekiel 47:1–12
Lesson 5 Ezekiel’s Vision of a New Temple looks at the priestly concerns of the prophet and at his apocalyptic vision of a new Temple to replace the one in Jerusalem destroyed by the Babylonians in 587–586 B.C. After Ezekiel’s initial warning about the imminent fall of the southern kingdom, the prophet switches gears and begins delivering a hopeful message of restoration for the descendants of Jacob. Because the defeat of Judah is blamed on the people’s inability to follow God’s law, the prophet announces that in the future they’ll receive new hearts upon which God will have written his laws.

map notes—Edom stretched south of territory settled by the 12 tribes
Edom, God’s people’ nearest neighbor south of Judah, extended from the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula north to the Dead Sea, and most of that area is located off the bottom of the accompanying map. The Edomites plundered Jerusalem during the Babylonian conquest of the southern kingdom in 587–586 B.C. A short time later in 553 B.C., the land inhabited by the Edomites also fell to the Babylonians. This makes it fairly easy to date the Book of Obadiah as having been written in the short window of time after the fall of Jerusalem but before the Babylonian conquest of Edom. As a result of the vast conquests of Alexander the Great in 356–323 B.C., by the time the Gospels were written in the New Testament, the territory of Edom had become known as Idumaea, the Greek form of the name Edom. True to Obadiah’s prophecies, Edom eventually disappeared from history. Click on the map (right) to enlarge it. The original map is on page 47 of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

Q&A—is it Idumea or Idumaea?
One sharp-eyed reader points out that we refer to Idumaea in the map notes for this lesson. She’s used to seeing Edom called Idumea (without a second “a”).

Q: It looks like Idumaea is a typo in these map notes. Am I right that it’s usually spelled Idumea?

A: Idumaea isn’t a typo in the map notes, but you get points for being correct that the usual English spelling is Idumea. Idumaea (with the extra “a”) is the way that Edom, the territory south of the former southern kingdom of Judah, eventually came to be referred to by the Greeks. It originally was settled by Jacob’s twin brother Esau and was called Seir at that time. Because that’s the point of the sentence in the map notes, spelling it Idumaea in that instance is intentional. Idumea is the way Idumaea commonly is spelled in English. Other Greek words with an -aea ending commonly drop the first “a” when rendered in English. A familiar example is Judea, the name that the Greeks and Romans called the region formerly known as Judah. Judea sometimes appears in print as Judaea, following the Greek spelling.

confused about biblical geography?
Throughout the Bible, Seir, Edom, Idumea, and Idumaea all refer to the same place, and Edom also is another name for Esau—just as Israel is another name for Jacob. The Book of Obadiah, although the shortest book in the Old Testament, still manages to mention a large number of unfamiliar locations—some of which no longer exist. It’s no small task to try to keep track of these places. To learn more about these and other locations such as the Negeb, Shephelah, Gilead, Hallah, and Zarephath—and the meaning of their names—you can visit our online glossary, which includes entries for all of the proper nouns in the primary biblical texts in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

a name for Edom that doesn’t appear in the Book of Obadiah
In the book of Genesis 32:3, Edom is identified as the land of Seir. The thirty-sixth chapter of the book of Genesis lists the descendants of Esau, and in the book of Genesis 36:20 Seir is further identified as a son of Horite. The book of Deuteronomy 2:12 explains that the Horites were displaced by Esau’s descendants: “The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them, and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their stead … .” The descendants of Esau who came into the region after the Horites were the first to use the name Edom. Little more is known about the Horites, although some scholars suggest their name means “cave-dwellers.”

the real problem with the Edomites’ behavior (37:54)
What makes the Book of Obadiah valuable to Christians? In the video for Lesson 6, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps explains that Obadiah isn’t some random nutcase honked off by the Edomites recent behavior, he’s a prophet channeling the voice of God. The bad behavior of the Edomites (the descendants of Esau) aimed at their genetic relatives the Israelites (in this case the descendants of Jacob who’d been living in the southern kingdom of Judah prior to its final collapse in 587–586 B.C.) wasn’t what most angered God. What angered God was that the descendants of Esau and the descendants of Jacob shared a common religious heritage, and the Edomites refused to honor it. As twin sons of the patriarch Isaac, Esau and Jacob—and their descendants—were united under the covenant God entered into with their grandfather Abraham. This covenant, the Old Testament sign of which is circumcision, forms an unbreakable religious bond. The Edomites are criticized by the prophet Obadiah for ignoring their obligation to the descendants of Jacob. The same covenant bond (the New Covenant initiated by Jesus, the sign of which is Baptism) holds true for Christians. There’s no circumstance in which we can get away with treating other Christians badly. Each Sunday at Mass we confess the four marks of the Church, that this institution established by Jesus is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. There aren’t multiple Christianities, and our shared relationship with God binds us to honor all other Christians.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the ranges for the sets of questions in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption. You can follow along as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 6, “Obadiah’s Oracles Against Edom,” on pages 45–49 in the study book.

a participant comments about the video
Matthew’s reminder about how we should treat our Protestant brothers and sisters is a good one and often overlooked. A couple of Matthew’s comments really struck me. One was: “The covenant you have with God is more important than anything you have going on. Don’t align yourself against God. It’s not OK. Don’t pick the wrong side. It won’t end well.'” The other was about how people think that they aren’t under God’s rule and so assume they can choose whether to be subject to God.

what’s the background of the relationship between Esau & Jacob?
“A Long-Standing Family Feud” on page 48 in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the history between the twin sons of the patriarch Isaac. The twenty-seventh chapter in the book of Genesis describes the beginning of trouble in their relationship, although there are many later biblical references to Esau’s descendants the Edomites being problematic. In the First Book of the Kings 11:14, Hadad the Edomite is identified as Solomon’s adversary. It’s worth noting that by the time of Jesus, the Romans had installed an Edomite as figurehead king in Judea, which is how the former southern kingdom of Judah was referred to then. Learn more about Hadad and Solomon in Lesson 3 Ahijah Foretells the End of the United Kingdom in the first volume of this Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study, Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided.

another significant Obadiah
Lesson 7 Elijah Triumphs Over the Prophets of Baal, also in the first volume of this overview of the biblical prophets, looks at another Old Testament figure by the name of Obadiah. This Obadiah makes a brief appearance in the eighteenth chapter in the First Book of the Kings as an overseer of Ahab’s household in the northern kingdom of Israel. That Obadiah is described as a devout worshiper of the LORD who’s protected a hundred of the LORD’s prophets marked by Jezebel for death. Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out that during the time that these 100 prophets were in hiding, it apparently never occurred to the first Obadiah that God might carry any of them to another place. When Obadiah encounters Elijah, however, he’s concerned that the prophet suddenly might be whisked away by the Spirit of the LORD. Obadiah apparently recognizes that Elijah’s relationship with God is of a different nature than that of the 100 prophets whom Obadiah’s been protecting. Although there is some slight present-day speculation that this Obadiah might be the same person credited with writing the Book of Obadiah, about 300 years separate the days of Elijah when the northern kingdom of Israel still was intact from the time when the Edomites participated in the conquest of the southern kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians, so that idea seems unlikely.

word of God—you could look it up in our archives
The Book of Obadiah 1:1 announces that what follows is an account of a vision shown to Obadiah. That this vision is prophetic is made clear by use of the phrase: “Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom.” Perhaps the most powerful image in Scripture is that of the “word of God.” In Lost in Translation, an online column that can help readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps looks at two different ways that God’s word is addressed in the New Testament. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

a comment about the Edomites’ failure to understand
Some find the last part of Question 3 on page 47 in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption difficult to answer. In reference to the Book of Obadiah 1:5–7, that question asks: “What exactly does the prophet think is impossible to understand about the Edomites’ situation? Why might that be?” The following response came from a participant who spends a good deal of time preparing for discussion. Others may find it worthwhile as a starting point for reflection.

“When pride is the root of understanding, there can be no understanding for humility or the position of being humbled.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK about Obadiah’s day of the LORD?
The day of the LORD is a term used throughout biblical prophecy, and it appears in the Book of Obadiah 1:15: “For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations.” Although present-day Christians sometimes confuse day of the LORD with the Lord’s day (Sunday), the two terms don’t carry exactly the same meaning. In prophecy, the day of the LORD is a point of reckoning when individuals will meet God and their past behavior will be judged.

? Many of those hearing the original Old Testament prophecies about the day of the LORD wouldn’t have felt comfortable about the prospect of meeting God. In contrast, the Lord’s day is celebrated by Christians as a joyous time of worship. Consider how these two apparently contradictory meanings might overlap to refer to the same event.
? What can Christians do to prepare for the inevitable meeting with God?
? Consider why so many Old Testament prophets mention a future day of the LORD.
? What response were the prophets hoping for from God’s people?
? Why might the vast majority of the people have failed to heed the prophets’ words?
? Consider how prepared most present-day Christians are to meet the LORD.
? What can you do to be better prepared?
? What can you do to help others to be better prepared?

how is this relevant?
What’s the most interesting point made in the Book of Obadiah? Why might studying this Old Testament book be important for Catholics? Each lesson in the study book Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption contains commentaries designed to make it easier to reflect on ways that God’s Word applies to present-day Christians.

? In Matthew’s video overview for this lesson, he suggests that it’s always a mistake to bet against God. What might be the underlying assumption behind why people continue to place themselves in opposition to God’s law?
? What are some present-day examples of ways in which men and women choose to side with society rather than with Church teaching?
? What might explain why some people choose to veer from what they know to be righteous behavior (standards set forth in the Catechism of the Catholic Church)?
? Consider whether such people expect their actions to backfire.
? What’s the difference between serving God willingly and being subject to God’s rule whether we wish to be or not?
? Consider whether it’s possible to ignore God and thus remain outside of God’s rule.
? What are some things that could cause a serious break with the Church?
? What advice might be helpful to a friend or family member who was contemplating an action that indicates they’ve fallen away from their faith?

Q&A—what response are you looking for in Question 9?
A participant in this study has asked for clarification regarding Question 9 on page 49 in the study book. That set of questions is based on the Book of Obadiah 1:19–20. In the video overview for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses practical application of the same biblical text.

Q: “What’s the unifying characteristic shared by [the various regions inhabited by the people who come to possess the Promised Land in the future]?” Aren’t these the regions where the 12 tribes had been scattered when Israel and Judah were conquered?

what Matthew says: What these regions have in common is that they’re part of or adjacent to original territory that the LORD promised to the patriarch Abraham and his descendants. Looking up these geographical locations in the online glossary might make this a bit easier to grasp. After the conquests of Israel and Judah, the descendants of Jacob were scattered much farther away than most of the locations mentioned in the Book of Obadiah 1:19–20. There were descendants of Jacob who remained in the former kingdoms, however. The prophet seems to be emphasizing that God intends to restore the Promised Land to his people, even though at the moment that doesn’t appear very likely based on the situation faced by the exiles immediately after being taken as captives to Babylon.

ex libris—Obadiah & the LORD as king
The Book of Obadiah receives little attention—none of its verses appear in Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish lectionaries—but it’s addressed in Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls by Thomas L. Leclerc, M.S. (Missionaries of La Salette), a professor of Scripture at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts. Leclerc points out that Obadiah’s emphasis on God establishing a kingdom for the descendants of Jacob evokes a strong image of God as king. At ex libris—main bookshelf, you can read an excerpt and learn more about Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls and other works related to Bible study.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however, including the primary passage from this lesson: the Book of Obadiah 1:1–21.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

to learn more, read more Scripture
It can help to check out the cross references listed in Scripture, but looking them up is time-consuming. To make that part easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, open the link and click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Book of Obadiah 1:1–21 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s biblical texts.

Lord God, ruler of all Creation and Father of all nations,
you sent your prophets to deliver your commands,
obliging us to love one another as your family.
Let not the pride of our hearts deceive us
with feelings of superiority over one another.
We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ,
the model of humility, who sends us the Holy Spirit. Amen.

you also may like our study of the book of Genesis
The first seven lessons of In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis, a 28-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, provide an in-depth look at the very earliest biblical history—including the two accounts of Creation, events surrounding the Fall of Adam and Eve, the relationship between Cain and Abel, and the baptismal foreshadowing present in the account of Noah and the Flood. Remaining lessons look at lives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption. You can find information on this website about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer your questions and address any of your concerns. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages of Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. A handful of more significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSVCE and RSV2CE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.

**The Book of Isaiah 55:10-11 (RSV2CE) reads: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I intend, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”